As promised earlier in the week, today we used up a whole 2kg of carefully handpicked gooseberries and did the only good thing you can do with gooseberries (in my opinion); we made jelly-jam!

It was definitely mummy’s activity today with a few helpful, and not so helpful (throwing in an entire lemon), moments from the adventurer.

We started out with our gooseberries and picked some elderflower from the tree outside our yard.

We crushed the gooseberries up with a rolling pin and boiled them for 5 minutes. For the second batch we added mint and thyme from our yard at this point too.

Then we pushed the cooked puree through a sieve. This isn’t a usual jam thing but as we were making a jelly-jam this meant that there wouldn’t be skin and pips in it. It’s a bit of a pain BUT it does mean you don’t need to top and tail the gooseberries to begin with which is a win in my books.

The smooth bits were then weighed, some lemon juice was added and it was boiled with sugar (the same weight as the puree) for 15 mins. We swished some elderflower round the first batch at this point.

Once it passed the setting on a saucer test we funnelled it into sterilised (recently dishwashered) jars, sealed and labelled.

Of course we tested a bit of each jam with some yoghurt and we can confirm that they are both YUMMY!

Another Friday and another Wild Welly Walk with wonderful friends. This week we climbed a hill to see a view.

Our wander at Pant-y-Llyn was blustery and beautiful.

The walk up here is gentle and the scenery is breathtaking.

It is such a good thing to be able to share these kind of adventures with friends and to watch the children exploring and just having fun together.

Definitely a wild place that’s well worth a visit.Take a look at our blog for a detailed guide with lots of photos and directions.

After a really lazy morning we headed over to Grandad’s field this afternoon. With nothing wild actually planned we crossed our fingers that wild things would occur, and they did. Today We went wild in a field (without a plan).

Grandad took full advantage of the free and willing labour so we set about collecting gooseberries. We learnt that they are prickly.

Almost got lost in the gooseberries.

Apparently they are tasty raw…. blurgh. She ate loads!!

We found lots of snails and other bugs. This lucky (and of course, very hungry) caterpillar was fed a gooseberry.

Mummy reclaimed the raspberry plants from nettles and sticky weed, sadly no photos but I did an excellent job.

Generally a pretty wild time was had roaming the field, with the dogs, under the watch of the beautiful Carneddau hill.

This sets us up brilliantly for a future jam making post.. watch this space.

We headed off on an afternoon adventure today to visit a bird hide.

We chose to go all out and visit the hide at Bwlch Nant yr Arian, a Natural Resources Wales site where the Red Kites are fed daily, so we were sure we’d see some fantastic birds.

Even the walk to the hide was pretty spectacular.

In the hide we were incredibly close to where the kites were being fed.

We could see them in the sky…

… on the ground…

.. and all the swooping inbetween.

It was perfect for our adventurer to get a close encounter with what must have been hundreds of Red Kites.

We even spotted a tiny frog.

We really love this place and have visited a few times before. Take a look at our blog for the accessible Barcud Trail on which the hide is situated.

For those who’d like to explore in more detail you can borrow an Explorers Pack from the visitor centre. This includes information, binoculars, a bug pot, equipment for tree rubbing and other bits and bobs.

There are also two great playgrounds and a huge bird feeder at perfect bird watching height.

A lovely wild afternoon with lots of bird hide action.

We really love where we live and all the beautiful places on our doorstep. This afternoon we visited friends with the perfect place for adventures right behind their house, so we went wild in the woods.

A short walk along a footpath..

.. then into the trees.

Down a hill…

… to play in the river.

Mummy paddled too…

… Daddy stayed dry.

We even had a close encounter with a heron.

After this the smaller adventurers had a race to see who could get naked quickest and then had the best time being completely wild.

Wonderful memories.

Earlier this year we had our tiny yard paved leaving us with a completely blank canvas i.e. completely no wildlife. We’re using #30dayswild to help us give our outside space a nature friendly boost. Due to the small space we’re trying to plant as many things off the ground as possible so today we made a milk bottle fence planter as part of our vertical garden.

We started off with lots of empty, clean, 4 pint plastic milk bottles.

Then we chopped bits off them so they look like this..

Or this..

Then we slid them onto a piece of wood and hooked it onto the fence.

Inside our milk bottles at the moment are; herbs that are planted inside them and seedlings in bio-degradable pots that are getting used to the outside before being planted out into bigger pots or the ground.

We then made sure they were watered.

We are taking a photo a day of the yard so hopefully we can look back and see the transformation at the end of #30dayswild. I can’t wait for things to flower!!

Today we’ve enjoyed all of the good things; sun, sky, grass, trees, food, drink, tractors and bouncy castles.. a really wild party in a field!

So wild in fact, that mummy only took one photo.. but be assured there was lots of running barefoot through the buttercups to go along with the bouncing and tractor riding.

It was also a great spot for watching Red Kites, something we take a bit for granted here in mid-Wales.

We got a bit crafty today and finally got round to completing one of our activities from our May (oops) Mud & Bloom box. We gathered some wild things on our walk and made a nature loom.

We started off with our bits and bobs.

Made a loom using sticks and wool.

And wove our wild finds in.

We even had a wild visitor while we were crafting.

A fun evening activity after a day of shopping (urgh).

These Random Acts of Wildness are good for mummy too 🌼

Today is Friday so we ventured out for our weekly Wild Welly Walk, as part of the Family Walks Network, and did some outdoor adventuring with friends.

We wandered through the woods and right under Caban Coch dam near the Elan Valley visitor centre, stopping to check out the awesome scenery (not many photos, I was too busy chatting, oops).

Then we spent the next few hours in the fab play area with the most magnificent backdrop.

We are really enjoying our weekly outdoor adventuring; hanging out with our friends and making new ones, all in wild places 💚